Boone County could — and should — be the green energy headquarters for Indiana.
With a coordinated effort between municipal and county government, schools, civic organizations and the public, this county can become the state’s alternative energy educational, manufacturing and research center.
Boone’s geography, geology and infrastructure — present and potential — make this achievable. The only obstacle is what’s been called “the TTWWADI Factor” — for “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
To get there, we have to discard not just the idea of “thinking outside the box” — we have to recognize there never was a box.
We have some of the most productive farm land in Indiana. Keeping that ag land in corn and soybeans does not mean we can’t have high tech. We can use some of that farm land to create the energy for a green economy.
Here are some “what-ifs”:
n What if Lebanon Utilities and Boone REMC furnished broad-band Internet access to every home and business here — for free?
Santa Monica, Calif., has applied for $1 million in federal grants that would allow free Wi-Fi access at libraries, government buildings and other spots, according to Muniwireless, an organization that tracks “news, information, analysis, commentary, interaction and advocacy for everything that has to do with citywide wireless broadband networks” around the world.
That money is part of the $7.2 billion in the administration’s stimulus package; the money is intended to bring broadband out of its cabled closet. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the USDA’s Rural Utility Service are distributing the money.
What’s stopping us from getting our share?
n What if the Quality Inn, an abandoned motel at Indiana 39 and Interstate 65, was bought by either the city or county — or a generous private donor — to be converted into a community college and high tech development center?
In November, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs launched a Web site and blog intended to “connect individuals in the Midwest who are developing regional responses to today’s global challenges.” The Web site is globalmidwest.org; the blog, “The Midwesterner,” is at http://globalmidwest.typepad.com
The blog is written by Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the CCGA. He’s not your ordinary civic booster: He worked for the Chicago Tribune and United Press International, and was twice a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
Thursday, Longworth wrote about the importance of small towns spending more time and effort to helping their high school graduates who don’t go to college.
He talks about the book, “Hollowing Out The Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America,” by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas.
It’s not a surprise that the “smart” kids — whom Carr and Kefalas identify as the high-achievers — find jobs away from home when they graduate from college. It’s that small towns and cities are making a dangerous — and, in some instances, lethal — mistake by ignoring the kids who stick around.
“Especially in schools, all educational effort is spent on kids who will leave, while the ‘stayers’ — the kids on whom the towns’ future depends — are short-changed,” Longworth said.
That’s the reality small towns have faced in the past. It doesn’t have to be their future.
And it doesn’t have to be ours.
— Rod Rose is the assistant managing editor of The Lebanon Reporter. He may be reached at rod.rose@reporter.net. He blogs at http://rodmrose.wordpress.com.
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Nothing to stop Boone from going green
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